WELCOME TO LEAPS - Leadership, Ethics, and Public Speaking  This is a  course required of all seniors.  Its goal is to complement the academic and extracurricular program by helping students to develop the skills and confidence that are necessary to be active thinkers and learners in college and beyond.  Each student will explore how he or she can be a leader, understanding that leadership demands both purpose and values, and the class will discuss and wrestle with ethical issues and dilemmas.  There will be a focus on current events, awareness of the dynamics of small and large groups, self-reflection, and our responsibility as members of entities ranging from a close friendship to the senior class to Portledge School to the United States to the world community.   The course will address public speaking by developing observation, organizational, listening, and reasoning skills and exploring various speaking scenarios such as interviews, debates, seminars, and formal presentations.  The class meets as a whole – the entire senior class – for a double period each Tuesday, and we have divided the class into four sections, each of which meets once each week.  The goal is to have student-directed discussions/seminars, to help students know themselves and their classmates well, appreciate the value of reflection, and become responsible world citizens.  GROUND RULES:        Read text carefully                                 Listen to others -- do not interrupt                                 Speak clearly                                 Speak to all group members

	This I Believe
	Wednesday, February 16th  we will begin the morning with the first "This I Believe" speech by Sophie Steell.  Subsequent speakers will be featured during the double period LEAPS class on Thursdays and during Wednesday morning meetings. The list of speakers and dates is posted in the Slanetz wing on the College Counseling Board. A list will also be posted as a separate document in our homework folders.   The concept of "This I Believe" is based on a 1950s radio program of the same name, hosted by the well-known journalist, Edward R. Murrow. During that era, Americans listened to compelling essays by luminaries such as Eleanor Roosevelt, Jackie Robinson, Helen Keller, and Harry Truman as well as corporate leaders, cab drivers, scientists, and secretaries—anyone able to condense into a few minutes the guiding principles by which they lived. Their ideas and words brought comfort and inspiration to a country anxious about the Cold War, McCarthyism, and racial tensions. In 2005, NPR revived the series, and in doing so, executive producer Dan Gediman explained, “The goal is not to persuade Americans to agree on the same beliefs. Rather, the hope is to encourage people to begin the much more difficult task of developing respect for beliefs different from their own.” The program ran until 2009 and though no longer aired on the radio, it has taken on a life of its own with two published books to date, a foundation and a website http://thisibelieve.org  where essays and podcasts can be read and heard. As the heading of the website states, it is where "a public dialogue about belief - one essay at a time" continues.